At Matter of Trust, recycled hair clippings are made into mats and booms that help corral and sop up spilled oil. A call to action has been issued in order to collect donations of feathers, hair—both pet and human—and clean nylon stockings to help clean up the Gulf oil spill. The nylons are stuffed with hair and feathers, then deployed to help with rounding up and soaking in waterborne spilled oil.

The current Gulf oil spill disaster is getting a lot of press, but there are over 2,600 oil spills each year that release an average of 726 million gallons of oil into waterways, half of that is from illegally dumped motor oil. A single quart of oil can contaminate a million gallons of water.